And, here’s a little something extra. This is my favorite Gil Scott-Heron lyric. It’s from his song Whitey on the Moon.

A rat done bit my sister Nell. (with Whitey on the moon) Her face and arms began to swell. (and Whitey’s on the moon)

For what it’s worth, it doesn’t look as though whitey is going to be on the moon again anytime soon. Unless something unforeseen happens, the era of manned space flight, at least in the United States, will be drawing to a close this summer, with the last launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Of course, the dollars saved will not be spent making the lives of the inner city poor any better. But I guess you knew that.

He did some interesting stuff and was certainly an innovator. He also made a ton of terrible records, much of it painfully off-key. You have to also lay much of the blame for “slam poetry” at his feet. Slam poetry.